VEDIT 6.0 Programmable Universal File Editor / Translator Macro Language Reference Manual Greenview Data VEDIT Programmable, Universal File Editor and Translator For Text, Program, Database, Binary And Mainframe File Editing Version 6.03 Manual Written By: Theodore Green & Timothy McLean Programmed By: Theodore Green & Thomas Burt Greenview Data, Inc. 2773 Holyoke Lane Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Telephone: (734) 996-1300 Fax: (734) 996-1308 E-Mail: [email protected] Visit our Web site: www.vedit.com Copyright (C) 1990 - 2002 by Greenview Data, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, for any purpose without the express written permission of Greenview Data. DISCLAIMER Greenview Data, Inc. and the authors make no claims or warranties with respect to the contents or accuracy of this publication, or the product it describes, including any warranties of fitness or merchantability for a particular purpose. Any stated or expressed warranties are in lieu of all obligations or liability for any damages, whether special, indirect, or consequential, arising out of or in connection with the use of this publication or the product it describes. Furthermore, the right is reserved to make any changes to this publication without obligation to notify any person of such changes. Last Manual Revision: May. 10, 2002 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following people for their assistance. Christian Ziemski for the exceptionally thorough beta-testing of new versions and assistance in setting up the Discussion Conference on our Web site. Scott Lambert for the numerous suggestions, for supporting other users in the Discussion Conference, and for running his own "VEDIT macro" Web site. Maxim Glukhov for writing the new BOX-DRAW.VDM and AS- CII2.VDM macros supplied with VEDIT. Wayne Barrett, for donating many hours to editing and enhancing this manual and for his helpful feedback over many years. Peter Freed of Data Base Management Systems, Inc. for writing the CMD-CONV.VDM, DBASE.VDM and WS6.VDM (enhanced WordStar emulation) macros supplied with VEDIT. This manual was created using Corel Ventura in conjunction with VEDIT. V-SPELL was used for spelling correction. TRADEMARKS VEDIT, V-SPELL and V-PRINT are trademarks or registered trade- marks of Greenview Data, Inc. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT and Internet Explorer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Netscape and Netscape Communicator are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. IBM, IBM PC/AT, PS/2 and OS/2 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines. Corel, WordPerfect, Paradox and Ventura are registered trademarks of Corel Corporation. dBase and Brief are trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland International. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 - Introduction................................................................. 7 Welcome to VEDIT....................................................................................7 Macro Language Features ..........................................................................8 Using this Manual.......................................................................................10 Chapter 2 - Command Macro Guide............................................. 11 Definition of "Command Macro" ................................................11 Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 .....................................................................................12 "COMMAND:" Prompt Example ...............................................12 Keystroke Macro Example ..........................................................13 {USER} Menu Example..............................................................14 Creating a Macro as a .VDM file.................................................15 Running Bigger Macros...............................................................16 Please use the On-Line Help!.....................................................................16 Command Mode .........................................................................................17 Entering Command Mode ...........................................................17 Return to Visual Mode ................................................................18 Command Lines...........................................................................18 Command Line Editing................................................................18 Reusing Previous Command Lines..............................................19 Using the Scratchpad ...................................................................19 Command Syntax.........................................................................19 Command Arguments..................................................................20 String Arguments..................................................................21 Command Options................................................................22 Multiple Line String Arguments .................................................22 Command Return Value On-Line Calculator .....................................................................23 Command Mode Window ...........................................................24 Controlling Screen Display .........................................................24 Basic Commands ........................................................................................25 Help Command ............................................................................25 Exiting VEDIT.............................................................................25 Display Status Information .........................................................26 The Config( ) Commands ............................................................27 Edit Buffer Dependent Configuration Parameters....................................................................................28 Moving the Edit Position .............................................................29 Alter Commands ..........................................................................30 4 Search and Replace ................................................................................... 31 Searching and Search Options .................................................... 31 Replacing..................................................................................... 32 Unsuccessful Search and Replace............................................... 33 File Editing Commands ............................................................................. 34 Opening Files for Editing............................................................ 34 Closing Files................................................................................ 35 Save File and Continue Editing .................................................. 35 Directory Display ........................................................................ 36 Deleting (Erasing) Files ............................................................ 36 Pathnames ................................................................................... 37 Changing Current Drive / Directory ......................................... 37 Text Registers ........................................................................................... 38 Text Register Commands............................................................ 38 Using Text Registers in Filenames ............................................ 39 Text Register Usage .................................................................. 40 Intermediate Commands............................................................................ 41 Printing Text ............................................................................... 41 Entering Control Characters........................................................ 42 Re-routing Console Output ......................................................... 43 Multiple File Editing ................................................................................. 44 Using Edit Buffers as Text Registers ......................................... 44 Moving Text Between Edit Buffers ........................................... 45 Window Commands ................................................................................ 46 "Reserved" Windows .................................................................. 48 Windows and Edit Buffers ......................................................... 48 Advanced Window Commands .................................................. 49 Chapter 3 - Programming Guide....................................................51 Introduction to Programming .................................................................... 51 Command Macros ...................................................................... 52 Command Macros in Visual Mode ............................................. 52 Loading Macros into Text Registers ......................................... 54 Commenting Macros................................................................... 54 Flow Control .............................................................................................. 55 Repeat Loop ................................................................................ 55 Ending Repeat (and other) Loops ..............................................